RobO has only added a handful of items to our ever-growing bucket list. The city of Bruges was one such item, which he learned about via the film ‘In Bruges’. Though I hadn’t seen the movie (until we watched it at our guesthouse ‘in Bruges’), a couple of photos was enough to motivate me to help check it off of the list.
A fun fact is that throughout the movie one of the main characters repeatedly calls Bruges a fu€kin’ $hit hole. Our Air BnB hosts told us that they were sitting next to the mayor at the movie premiere and that he was so mad. They were looking forward to telling him that almost 10 years later the film is still drumming up tourists!
The film character couldn’t have been more wrong about Bruges. It’s been called ‘ the Venice of the North’ because of it’s canals. It reminds me a lot of all of the things I love about Amsterdam (bikes, beers, canal boats) but feels really cozy. Like the same warm feelings that you get when smelling fresh chocolate chip cookies at Grandma’s house or drinking a glass of port while sitting beside a fireplace. You know what I mean. Add in some Belgian waffles and frites and BOOM.
We enjoyed our climb up the belfry tower, where we got to see and hear the organist playing some amazing tunes with the bells (including the Game of Thrones theme song!).
We made good use of our Air BnB bikes to explore all of old town.
During the 3 days we were there we experienced a record breaking heat wave, where temperatures reached more than 40 degrees. Unlike back home, most places in Europe do not have air conditioning, so we took to the local canal swimming hole to cool off. Anyone who knows me will know that it had to be insanely hot for me to even consider getting wet!
I don’t even think we could say we were in Belgium without having waffles, frites, and beers.
We then took a train to the capital city of Brussels. We spent our first afternoon exploring, knowing that our weather luck (if a 40 degree heat wave is lucky) was coming to an end.
Though it might sound strange, one of the things on my list here was to visit the Mannekin Pis fountain. It evokes a feeling of nostalgia as I grew up with a small replica of this statue in the downstairs bathroom of my parents’ house (a souvineer from their first trip to Europe). I’m sure they’ll be pleased to see that in the 40+ years since a whole family of statues has emerged.
We were ready for a break from the heat, but not a full day of jungle rain! We made the most of it with a visit to the Atomium, which was built for Expo 1958.
Merci for a great few days, Belgium. Now we’re flying northeast for a few days in Copenhagen.